The present invention relates to a material separation device and a material separation method.
When press working is performed, for example, a material separation device is used to separate one sheet of material from a plurality of sheets of stacked material, and supply this sheet to the press device (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H9-194056, for example).
The material separation device discussed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H9-194056 is provided with suction pads that are driven up and down by air cylinders. The uppermost aluminum sheet is lifted upwards and separated from a stack of aluminum sheets by the suction pads.
With a non-ferrous material, such as aluminum sheets, however, because the sheets cannot be separated using magnetism, with the material separation device in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application H9-194056, a plurality of suction pads are controlled in order to take the aluminum sheets one by one from the stack without taking up double sheets.